Showing titles in Customs & Traditions

Countless would-be readers and listeners of Finnegans Wake - James Joyce's 1939 masterwork, on which he labored for a third of his life - have given up after a few pages and "dismissed the book as a perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with novelist and poet Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first guide to understanding the fascinating world of Finnegans Wake.

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious readers and academics alike. Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and...

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of "basic stories" in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it reveals that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. 

In this fourth volume in The Masks of God series - Joseph Campbell’s major work of comparative mythology - the preeminent mythologist looks at the birth of the modern, individualistic mythology as it developed in Europe beginning in the 12th century AD up through the modernist art of the 20th century. The Masks of God is a four-volume study of world religion and myth that stands as one of Joseph Campbell’s masterworks.

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In this book, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

Author and illustrator Martín Prechtel is internationally known for his explorations of ancient folklore and uncovering the lessons therein for modern readers. In The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun, he revives a hitherto unknown Guatemalan Tzutujil Mayan tale of the beginnings of the...

The legend of Atlantis is one of the most captivating and enduring stories ever told. For over two thousand years, it has stirred the imagination of philosophers, explorers, mystics, and dreamers. A city swallowed by the sea in a single day and night, a mighty civilisation punished for its hubris, a radiant island where power and beauty thrived before vanishing without a trace — Atlantis is both a cautionary tale and a timeless riddle. But what do we really know about it?

Traditional interpretations of the creatures of the Bible have sanded down their sharp, unsavory edges, transforming them into celestial beings of glory and light—or chubby, happy cherubs. Those cherubs? They're actually hybrid guardian monsters, more closely associated with the Egyptian sphinx than with flying babies. And the seraphim? Winged serpents sent to mete out God's vengeance. Demons aren't at war with angels; they're a distinct supernatural species used by Satan and by God. The pattern is chilling. Most of these monsters aren't God's opponents—they're God's entourage.

Brought to you by Penguin. From the author of the million-copy bestseller, The Little Book of Hygge, comes a beautifully designed guide on how to get more out of work and live like the happiest people in the world: the Danish. We often look to the Danish lifestyle as a utopia: they enjoy long...

Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites listeners to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them.

‘A towering achievement’ MERVE EMRE NYT Best New Books of 2026 A majestic cultural and environmental history that reveals how forests have made – and resisted – Russia’s many empires. From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the Steppes of Central Asia, Russia’s forests...

Step into a world of shadowy forests, deep lakes, and icy mountain peaks where the lines between reality and myth blur. Cryptids and Cryptozoology: Spine-Chilling Encounters with Bigfoot, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, and Other Legendary Beasts is your guide to exploring the unexplainable. Whether you're a sceptic or a devoted believer, this thrilling compendium promises to immerse you in the strange, the mysterious, and the terrifying.

Four of the great works of mythology and legend, brought together! Learn the stories of Odin, Thor, Loki, Seigfried, and Beowulf, in their earliest written forms. Encounter gods, giants, dragons, and monsters. Thrill to the tales that have captured the human imagination for over a thousand years.

In Footprints, David Farrier explores what traces we will leave for the very deep future. From long-lived materials like plastic and nuclear waste, to the 50 million kilometres of roads spanning the planet, in modern times we have created numerous objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time. Our carbon could linger in the atmosphere for 100,000 years, and the remains of our cities will still exist millions of years from now as a layer in the rock.

In the 10 lectures of Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture, author and teacher Shannon Scott will take you around the world to explore the many ways humans have created and shared stories of wolves, shape-shifting, and lycanthropy.

In 1936 anthropologist Tom Harrison, poet and journalist Charles Madge and documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings set up the Mass Observation Project. The idea was simple: ordinary people would record, in diary form, the events of their everyday lives. An estimated one million pages eventually found their way to the archive - and it soon became clear this was more than anyone could digest. Today, the diaries are stored at the University of Sussex, where, remarkably, most remain unread.

'Jeffs narrates these interconnected tales with warmth, intimacy and a subtle undercurrent of menace' Guardian (Audiobook of the Week) Enriched for audio with specially commissioned music based on traditional melodies, Old Songs fuses short stories, histories, lyrics and music in an enthralling...

When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives. And so the National Story...

Finally sort out who’s who in Greek mythology—from gods, goddesses, heroes, monsters, and everyone in between! Greek mythology continues to appear in popular movies and books today but have you ever wondered about where these characters started out? Discover the origins of your favorite...

What if you came face to face with the gods? Phones stop working. Smartwatches die. And arms start glowing with blue scars. This is what happens to Aman Chandra and ten other Souls of Samsara when they are kidnapped from modern-day India and transported to a hidden valley in the Himalayas. In...